Tag Archives: Tak/Tom

Toy Review – LG40 Astrotrain

Astrotrain – truly a mainstay of the Decepticons in fiction since he first turned up in the G1 cartoon waaay back in 1985.  And why not – he is a Giant Robot that turns into a Space Shuttle and a Train!  I’m sorry but things don’t get much cooler than that!  Despite being immensely popular in the cartoon and there rarely having been a G1 comic in the last decade that hasn’t featured him extensively (always the troop transport aren’t ya, ya poor bugger!  To think back in the cartoon you became god of a moon!) Astrotrain has received very few toys over the years.  I suppose it’s not the easiest to design, a train and shuttle in one.  But now we have one again and he is a Headmaster no less!  So let’s get on with the review of the Legends series LG40 Astrotrain!

Gotta love Japanese box artwork

Please note: Legends Astrotrain is a tweaking of Titans Return Sentinel Prime so I will be making several references.  For my review of TR Sentinel Prime please read HERE.

 

Space Shuttle Mode

You can finally see the windows!

Quite flat but certainly a nicely shaped shuttle.  There are several options as to where you can place the guns, either on the sides or on the top (I go for the sides personally).  Astrotrain’s Headmaster can sit in either the little cockpit at the back between the tailfins or can sit in one of the gun turrets on the side.  Despite the great Tak/Tom colour scheme designed to make him look a lot like the G1 cartoon, he still looks a little bland in this mode.  However they have at least coloured the windows of the cockpit, something that the Sentinel Prime figure was sorely lacking and from photos I’ve seen the TR version of Astrotrain suffers from this as well.

Surely one of them will make it to Cybertron

 

Train Mode

Realism – 2%, Utter Coolness – 98%

It’s a damn weird train!  Looks like a Cybertronian train of some kind because I don’t think we have trains like this on earth, even in Japan.  Like the shuttle version, the train’s windows have added colour here in order to highlight them and the gun ports on the top of the train have been coloured differently to the section (Astrotrains robot arms) that they protrude from.  That and the overall colour scheme make this a far superior looking train to Sentinel Prime who looked like a bright red and orange stick.    Given you can now make out the train wheels and the trains cabin, it really gives a sense of scale to the toy, that this is a big-arse Cybertronian transport!

A JNR Class D51 Steam Locomotive from 1936. A Tsubame 800 Bullet Train from 2004. Does that mean we will see the new Astrotrain on the tracks in Japan around the year 2090?

 

Robot Mode

Space Beefcake!

What a butch looking Astrotrain!  In fact I think probably the best looking official Astrotrain toy we have ever had!  No chest boobs and static arms like the G1 toy, no giant back fins like the Timelines version and he certainly stands quite literally head and shoulders above the Classics version.  Good articulation on all extremities, nicely poseable and a good paint job.  I like how both his hand guns can join together to become one long rifle much like the G1 toy was sporting.  He is of course a Headmaster and his Headmaster partner (whose name is actually Head Master – no points for originality there) can come off and be replaced with any other Headmaster.  A great gimmick for little kids and my son loves it, but for myself as a grown up fan I just want Astrotrain himself.

Sentinel is a reminder to Astrotrain to always wear sunscreen

 

Overall

This is a great Astrotrain!  Yes the shuttle mode is a tiny bit flat and bland and the train mode is a bit alien in appearance but taken as a whole all three modes work and work well.  We needed a Voyager-sized Astrotrain for the Generations lineup and he makes a great buddy for Blitzwing.  The Tak/Tom version with the cartoon-homaging paintjob puts this toy far beyond the Titans Return version in my opinion and I heartily recommend this figure to all fans of great characters who get stuck carrying their mates around all day.  This guy will definitely make it to Cybertron!

I gotta catch a train. I gotta catch’em all!

Toy Review – Masterpiece Inferno

Ah Inferno.  So cool yet so overlooked.  A gung-ho character that was either fighting fires or fighting Cons or dealing with his psychotic superior.  Inferno is not considered a fan favourite by many, but I always loved the guy!  The original toy was great with lots of features and was a good size for its era and he was a fun character on screen during Season 2 of the G1 cartoon (my personal favourite TF ep’s ever!) Now to appease the likes of me, Tak/Tom have brought us Masterpiece Inferno!

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Vehicle Mode

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As mentioned, the G1 Inferno toy was one of my very favourite toys from that era.  The fact that the Fire Engine mode had a telescoping ladder with its two little nozzles on the end, along with the foam cannon at its base meant it had moving parts as well as looking like Inferno could actually shoot stuff in vehicle mode.  This vehicle mode here is very faithful to the cartoon but of course it suffers in the modern era by looking too simplistic.  The Leader-Class Sentinel Prime from DOTM was a fantastic looking Fire Engine as well as pretty damn big.  To compare the two, Inferno looks smaller (though pretty chunky for the current MP line all the same) and a lot plainer.

Money Shot!
Money Shot!

This said, he looks pretty damn good, the grill work on the front of the truck is pretty nice and the hoses on the side are present (both sides now rather than just the one – I would have preferred just the one myself) as well as other little details.  The telescoping ladder now has three sections instead of two although it looks a lot more boxy to my mind.  Being able to flip out a little hose at the end of the ladder and attach the spraying water facsimile is a great touch and makes it really look like a fire engine in action!

 

 

Robot Mode

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Everything you have come to expect from the MP line, including tilting ankles, opening hands, manoeuvrable head, knees, elbows etc.  Inferno is very poseable and his dimensions are spot on.  He is able to retract his hands to have big laser cannons come out, though no missile launcher like the G1 toy.  You can have him shoot faux water in this mode as well and he has his rifle so you can set him up to look like he is either fighting fires or Cons – whatever floats ya boat.  His head wings and foam launcher are present up top and while it is not something I bother with much myself you can change his face with the four different plates provided.  An issue I have with the MP line in general with some of these larger characters are how plain the legs look.  Inferno’s are better than MP Ratchet (see review HERE) and MP Shockwave’s (see review HERE) legs due to the hoses etc on the side but they all look a bit plain to my mind.  But that’s what fans have to remember – Tak/Tom is giving you a toy that looks like the cartoon as much as possible, which means you often lose lots of the nice details you got in the toy that they never bothered to replicate on screen.  Of course the flipside of that is you get little details such as his wrist communicator that the toy lacked.

 

Red Alert Lifter

Did you ever know that your my hero?
Did you ever know that your my hero?

When I saw all the images online of Inferno carrying MP Red Alert, replicating that classic episode where Inferno saves a crazed Red from a burning building, I just assumed it was something fans were doing for fun.  However when looking at the different chest plates for Inferno (there are 3) I realised one is specifically to set up this pose!  This shows great interactivity between the MP toys which is sometimes missing (besides putting the cars in MP Optimus’ trailer) in the line and hammers home that these toys really are made for the G1 enthusiast and that if you are shelling out this much money for the toy, then you should know the scene between Red and Inferno by heart already.

 

Transformation

The headaches that earlier MP toys provided – particularly Megatron and Rodimus Prime – are truly behind us.  Inferno will take you a few minutes the first few times and using the instructions until you get a feel for the toy is recommended.  I’m very much a fan of how they made the ladder fold up so compactly and fit into his back.  This is a definite improvement over the original toy and makes him look very much improved from the back!

 

Worth Buying?

If you are not a G1 nut, then for the exorbitant price tag (especially after currency conversion and postal fees if purchasing from overseas) I’d have to say a no.  There are cheaper and better looking Transformer Fire Trucks out there for you to buy on the secondary market like the aforementioned DOTM Sentinel Prime.  Even currently you have the Combiner Wars Hot Spot, Pyra Magna and upcoming Megaempress (think Megatron with a sex change) who aren’t the most brilliant Fire Engines but have the combining feature and their own teammates.  But if, like yours truly, you are a G1 nut and MP fan, then this Inferno is definitely a worthy addition to your collection.

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So what do you think of Masterpiece Inferno?  I’d love to hear in the comments section below!

Toy Review – Masterpiece Thrust

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Oh Tak/Tom, why do you not want me to pay off my house?  Why do you keep releasing these overly-priced MP exclusives that I just have to have?  Shame on you!  If I was a stronger man I would resist, but since I’m not and have caved yet again, I may as well share with the public my thoughts on your latest attempt to empty my wallet – Masterpiece Thrust.

 

Robot Mode

I have thighs - I promise!
I have thighs – I promise!

Thrust looks quite nice here, the expression is a tad blank but the face is a nice white colour and the eyes are yellow just like in the cartoon.  The body has cartoon accurate colours too, though one could ask is this a good thing?  In the cartoon Thrust’s colours were more muted and pale then the toy, the toy being a more rich maroon verging on brown with black highlights and in the cartoon he was a reddy-brown with grey.  The idea of the Masterpiece line is to make these toys show accurate rather than toy accurate, which means that sometimes we miss out on the great features of the toy (for instance Tracks flying car mode was cooler in the toy than the cartoon but the MP we got looks like the cartoon).  Thrusts knee pads are a bit too big and obscure his thighs, making him look more stubby than he really is but he does have his tail wings coming out of his calves and the main wings angle all make the legs and torso work.  Despite some quibbles that are all relatively minor this is a pretty damn fine looking Thrust!

 

Vehicle Mode

Just too sexy!
Just too sexy!

The theoretical F15-VTOL mode Thrust was based on has been faithfully represented here.  Once again one must wonder if the colour scheme would have looked better if they had gone with the toy than the cartoon but it’s really hard not to love the MP Seeker mold – in my opinion the best looking jets of the entire Transformers line ever!  A very nice little touch they have put in is that his wing turbines actually rotate, though one has to do it via finger rather than being able to blow on it like some other TF toys.  Thrust here has all the features the other MP Seekers have such as the nosecone and cockpit that open.  A couple of extras are the guns that sit under the wings and for once they seem to have gotten the pilot right – it being a translucent hologram character rather than a half-sucked Simpsons-jelly baby like came with Sunstorm.

 

Transformation

The seedy underbelly of weapons placement
The seedy underbelly of weapons placement

Most people that have been collecting the MP Seekers know how to do this and it’s certainly not the most onerous MP transformation ever.  I tend to use the instructions the first time round though just to give myself a refresher – given how much these latest Seekers have cost one does NOT want an accidental breakage!  A change they have made here from some of the other Seeker toys such as Ramjet is the configuration for the guns when converting to jet mode.  The guns instead of swinging out on two big struts under the wings now fold down and sideways on double jointed smaller struts to sit flush with the side of the jet whilst two removable guns are placed under the wings.

 

So is Thrust worth getting?

For the exorbitant price tag I’d say unless you are a mad TF collector then no.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great robot and a brilliant jet, but because of the toys exclusive status they have ramped up the price to a level that is verging on the rip-off side.  But if you ARE a mad TF collector like me then he is a must have.  Can’t wait to get Thundercracker and Dirge so my MP Seeker collection can be complete!

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